Nigeria’s oil and gas stocks opened the fourth quarter with a bruising selloff that dragged every energy name lower on the NGX.
October 2, 2026 was Q4’s first trading day after the October 1 Independence Day holiday kept the Nigerian Exchange closed.
Aradel Holdings, Seplat Energy and Conoil each took heavy losses during the session, with several stocks hitting their daily price-limit floors.
For the many investors who rode this sector’s remarkable 2026 rally, the opening session of Q4 flashed an unexpected warning signal.
Every oil stock on the NGX board closed lower on October 2
Aradel Holdings, the most valuable listed oil stock on the Nigerian Exchange, dropped from ₦1,530 to ₦1,377 on October 2, 2026. That single-session loss of roughly 10% pushed the upstream producer through its daily price-limit floor, the NGX Daily Official List confirmed.
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Conoil and TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria both crashed into the 10% daily floor as well, closing at ₦189 and ₦466.60 respectively on the session.
Seplat Energy, the most expensive stock on the NGX, opened at its 52-week high of ₦16,000.10 before pulling back to close at ₦15,620.10.
Oando and Eterna posted smaller losses but still finished the session in negative territory, reinforcing the broad selling pressure across the sector.
The oil sector’s clean sweep of losses underscored how quickly sentiment can shift, even in a group still adjusting to Nigeria’s overhauled tax code.
Aradel and Seplat’s record year set the stage for the retreat
The October pullback arrived after the NGX Oil and Gas Index delivered one of its strongest performances in the exchange’s history during 2026.
The sector index gained roughly 96% year-to-date as of July 2026, outpacing the broader All-Share Index’s 57% return by a wide margin, ThisDay reported.
That rally was concentrated almost entirely in two upstream producers, Aradel Holdings and Seplat Energy, which together dominate the sector index.
Aradel and Seplat generated a combined pre-tax profit of ₦1.54 trillion in the first half of 2026, Nairametrics reported.
David Adnori, Vice President at Highcap Securities Limited, noted that the sector index’s outperformance reflects the financial results of specific listed companies rather than broader industry fundamentals.
Adnori told ThisDay that the index performance “has to do with listed companies, not with the industry itself.”
Heading into October, Aradel and Seplat shares had gained 163% and 177% respectively over the trailing twelve months, Daba Finance confirmed, underscoring just how sharply the pair had outpaced every other sector on the exchange.
Profit-taking could test the sector’s gains through year-end
Pullbacks after sustained rallies are often driven by profit-taking rather than a deterioration in the underlying business fundamentals of the companies involved.
Aradel, Seplat and Oando held a combined ₦2.86 trillion in cash at mid-2026, positioning the sector’s biggest producers to continue funding their drilling programs through the rest of the year.
Other corners of the Nigerian financial market have also faced shifting dynamics in 2026, with banks splitting sharply on lending rates and broader risk appetite fluctuating throughout the year.
The direction of global crude oil prices and the release of Q3 corporate earnings will likely shape whether the oil selloff deepens or draws fresh buying interest.
Key data from Q4’s opening oil selloff
- Aradel Holdings fell 10% from ₦1,530 to ₦1,377, hitting its daily price-limit floor on Q4’s first trading session (NGX Daily Official List).
- Conoil dropped 10% to ₦189 and TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria fell to ₦466.60, both hitting the daily floor (NGX Daily Official List).
- Seplat Energy retreated from its 52-week high of ₦16,000.10 to close at ₦15,620.10, shedding approximately ₦380 per share (NGX Daily Official List).
- Oando slipped from ₦35 to ₦34.30 while Eterna dropped from ₦44 to ₦41, completing a clean sweep of losses across all listed oil names (NGX Daily Official List).
- The NGX Oil and Gas Index had gained roughly 96% year-to-date through July 2026, making it the best-performing sector index on the exchange (ThisDay).
